Jessica is the City of Norwalk’s Chief of Community and Economic Development. In this role, she will support the City of Norwalk in planning, organizing, and implementing economic and community development from conception to completion. Jessica will focus on attracting more businesses and visitors to Norwalk, streamlining the city’s permitting approval process, and improving on the ways people bike, walk, ride, and park throughout the city. In her previous role, as Chief Officer for Operations Policy and Oversight at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), Jessica worked with the planning and scheduling teams, oversaw a Commonwealth effort to implement new operations and system of time and record software for over 3,000 operators, contracted and managed temporary bus shuttles and service expansion, negotiated transportation mitigation with private developers, partnered with transportation advocates, and worked with local, state and federal elected officials to enhance the reliability and frequency of rail and bus service. Before working with the MBTA, Jessica was previously the Economic Development Director at the Plymouth Regional Economic Development Foundation, a collaborative non-profit focused on job growth and workforce development in Plymouth and the region. In this role, Jessica lead grant funding efforts that assisted in the replacement of a $4M town pier and an incremental multi-family development project estimated at $350M in private investment. She also worked at the Project on Municipal Innovation Advisory Group at the Harvard Kennedy School, supporting the implementation of best practices in 35 of the largest US cities, and at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, where she led research and strategic policy development in the areas of housing production and economic development.